Divers found after 18 hour search

Richard Neely and Allison Dalton have been rescued after going missing on Friday 23 May  in the Whistsundays off Queensland. They apparently surfaced 200 metres from the dive boat but were not spotted and were taken out to sea by a strong current. They were picked up the following day after an extensive sea and air search.

There seems to be some controversy over whether they were partly to blame by ignoring instructions which might have kept them in the lagoon and out of the current, whether the boat operator was at fault for not spotting them, or even whether they did it on purpose to make money on media interviews and film rights. Since I don’t have the facts, I’m not going to get involved in any such debate or speculation. For whatever reason, it is possible to surface away from a dive boat and not get spotted, as happened recently to a group of Taiwanese divers. All we can do is try to minimise the chances of that happening.

As a diver that means carrying devices such as a dSMB, and perhaps a CD or a signalling mirror. Also a whistle might be useful and a torch in case it goes dark. Beyond that some people carry an EPIRB which is a tracking beacon that can be homed in on by Search and recovery aircraft. I’ve also heard discussions about hand held VHF radios in pressure-proof containers, although I am less convinced about that. On some dives I’ve also carried a bottle of fresh water and a sunhat. Whether all of that survival kit is appropriate for all dives is open to question. I certainly wouldn’t bother with it on a nice gentle dive on Crescent Island in Hong Kong for example, which is very sheltered and not susceptible to currents. On the other hand I was a lot more cautious diving from a liveaboard on some obscure reefs with strong currents in Indonesia. I don’t have an EPIRB, but I was carrying 2 dSMBs, a whistle, torch and a bottle of fresh water.

At South China Diving Club, it is mandatory for all divers to carry a dSMB on all club dives. This was introduced after a situation where 2 divers surfaced away from the boat on Breaker’s Reef, which is quite a way from land. There was a swell which made it difficult to spot them as well as a current. It took half an hour to find them because it was very difficult to spot 2 small heads bobbing on the surface of one big ocean.

Anyway, whatever the full story, it is good news that these 2 divers have been found alive and well.